Category: 2025 ARFF BERLIN

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: “With Age Comes Wisdom”

Director’s Name: Juman Daraghmeh

Writer’s Name: Juman Daraghmeh

Producer: Kent Olofsson

Country of Origin: Palestine, State of

Country of Filming: Israel

Language: Arabic

Runtime: 8 minutes 49 seconds

Film Description:

This video art dives deep into the tangled web of faith and the longing for liberation. It grapples with the shadows of doubt and fear—what if it’s all real?
What if heaven and hell are waiting for us at the crossroads?
It’s a journey of choices, questioning which path we’ll dare to take.

(Winner)

Original Film Title: Zonen

Director’s Name: Nina Jeppsson

Writer’s Name: Nina Jeppsson

Producer: Kent Olofsson

Country of Origin: Sweden

Country of Filming: Sweden

Language: Swedish

Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes 30 seconds

Film Description:

In Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker (1979) three men enters the forbidden Zone in search of a magical room that will fulfill one’s innermost wish.

In Zonen we follow Nina who, after a shocking glimpse of a vertical truth, finds herself in the precarious Zone, a both inner and outer terrain which reflects the travelers own state of consciousness. With Tarkovsky’s film as a map and guide she starts searching the Zone for answers. She finds herself in a conversation about time and space with a spiritual medium and a quantum physics professor, at a Maundy Thursday dinner where Tarkovsky filmed the Sacrifice and confronting her daemons in the ruins of an old abandoned mine. All along the room is calling her onward, or is it her own heart? What will she find in that innermost room?

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: Project 2029

Director’s Name: James jones

Writer’s Name: James jones

Producer: Dingtu K

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 4 minutes 37 seconds

Film Description:

In a chilling vision of the future, Project 2029 reveals a society ravaged by prejudice, where the cost of erasing those deemed as ‘other” is seen as the Ideal.

(Honorable Mention)

Original Film Title: Goddess Across Time

Director’s Name: Dingtu K

Writer’s Name: Dingtu K, Yu Liu

Producer: Dingtu K

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 39 minutes 32 seconds

Film Description:

A modern Chinese girl, Xiaoxiao, unexpectedly travels to the ancient Kingdom of Xian. At the time, General Ling Sheng is trapped in a dire situation, with the kingdom surrounded by enemy forces and the supply lines cut off.
Using her modern wisdom, Xiaoxiao helps Ling Sheng break free, and as they work together, she discovers that the ancient jade she carries holds the secret to traveling through time. The enemy general, Ye Li, also covets the jade, intending to open the door to the modern world and trigger an apocalyptic crisis.
In order to protect both worlds, Xiaoxiao and Ling Sheng join forces to fight against the villain Ye Li. As they battle, feelings for each other slowly blossom, leading to a romance that transcends time. The story also profoundly explores the theme that “darkness can never overcome light.”

(Honorable Mention)

Original Film Title: Silent Supper

Director’s Name: Milena ZeVu

Writer’s Name: Milena ZeVu

Producer: Boris Vujicic

Country of Origin: Serbia

Country of Filming: Montenegro

Language:

Runtime: 11 minutes 2 seconds

Film Description:

Set 60 years in the future, Silent Supper by artist Milena ZeVu unfolds as an evocative 10-minute video work. Born as a live recording of a performance the artist carried out on July 3rd 2023, the project explores the implications of advanced Artificial Intelligence on human existence. The represented year is 2084, and the video focuses on the depiction of a dining table. The artist appears in a choral action surrounded by 11 performers who, along with her, participate in a dinner, remaining completely silent throughout.
At the centre of ZeVu’s inquiry lies a reflection on advanced technology and its role in human relationships. Despite the artist supporting the development of technologies such as AI and recognizing their positive values, she is equally concerned about the unregulated implementation and potential impact on human creativity, values, economic and spiritual well-being, and our overall sense of purpose.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: Last Day

Director’s Name: SING YAN TSAI

Writer’s Name: SING YAN TSAI

Producer: SING YAN TSAI

Country of Origin: Taiwan

Country of Filming: Taiwan

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Runtime: 9 minutes

Film Description:

In days plagued by severe depression, the body becomes entangled in insomnia and dissociative amnesia. Unable to find light or an escape, the protagonist repeatedly walks the border between life and death, enduring the pain brought by the arrival of darkness. Caught in an endless cycle of reincarnation and rebirth, the story focuses on the self, documenting corroded fragments in an intimate manner. The work combines 16mm, 8mm, and digital footage, attempting to reconstruct and restore the lost state of life through fragmented imagery.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: Arctic Polar Bear Mothers

Director’s Name: Carol J. Amore

Writer’s Name: Carol J. Amore

Producer: Carol J. AmoreONG KIM

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: Canada

Language: English

Runtime: 16 minutes

Film Description:

Immerse yourself in the “Seasons of Life”
of a heroic Polar Bear Mother who has to
protect and provide for her hungry cubs everyday
in the everchanging arctic weather extremes.

Feel the constant high winds, see the amazing
arctic night skies (Aurora Borealis) and explore the
Western Hudson Bay shoreline.
Roam the expansive tundra territories in the
spring, summer and fall seeing arctic & gray wolves,
lynxes, arctic & red foxes, wolverines, and moose.

Arctic birds of prey (gyrfalcon, golden & bald eagles,
great gray owl, snowy owl, great-horned owl and
peregrine falcons) are also an active part of the
film’s arctic seasons of life.

Plunge into the winter’s frozen icy cold waters
with the stealthy polar bear mother and cubs
to hunt on the deep sea ice for their life-saving
high energy food- ringed and bearded seals.

Arctic predators (mostly male polar bears, arctic wolves)
will challenge this endangered polar bear mother’s
courageous survival instincts. As a mother, she will
nurse her cubs even without nourishing herself
to rapidly build their strength and to grow them
to be independent as magnificent marine and
land predators within two to three years.
Her cubs are part of the next generation of hope
for polar bear survival.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: The Things We Loved

Director’s Name: SOOKMYEONG KIM

Writer’s Name: SOOKMYEONG KIM

Producer: SOOKMYEONG KIM

Country of Origin: Korea, Republic of

Country of Filming: Korea, Republic of

Language: English

Runtime: 7 minutes 18 seconds

Film Description:

A woman, while preparing to move, stumbles upon an old, dusty box in the attic. She has no recollection of this box, and its contents pique her curiosity. As she opens it, she discovers items from her past that she had long forgotten.

The first item she finds is an old keychain. As she holds it, memories of a childhood friend and a cherished promise come flooding back. In the rush of everyday life, she had let these warm memories fade, and now, the realization that this friend is no longer around fills her with a deep sense of sorrow and longing.

Next, she uncovers a crumpled letter. The letter contains a final, heartfelt message from someone she once knew but had since forgotten. As she reads, she is overwhelmed with shock and regret, and the letter compels her to reflect on the relationships she has lost and the moments she has overlooked in her life. The content of the letter reveals a profound truth, pushing her to reconcile with her past emotions and the unresolved feelings she had buried.

Yet, the mystery of who sent this box and why remains unsolved. While the items in the box are clearly connected to her memories, the identity and intention of the sender are still shrouded in mystery. Determined to uncover the truth, she begins to piece together the clues, revisiting memories and the connections she once held dear.

In the box’s depths, she finds a faded photograph and a small candle. The photograph shows her with someone she had lost touch with long ago, someone who had meant a great deal to her. As she lights the candle, she finally understands the last request of the person in the photo and realizes that this box was a final gesture—a message that was meant to reconnect her with her past and help her find peace.

Through this revelation, she decides to reconcile with her past and make an effort to restore the relationships she had neglected. Holding the lit candle, she walks towards the door. As she opens it, bright light floods into the room. She steps into the light, symbolizing her resolve to embrace a new beginning. The film concludes with this image, leaving the audience with a message of hope, courage, and the power of reconciliation.

(Finalist)

Original Film Title: Orangerie

Director’s Name: Caleb Weintraub

Writer’s Name: Caleb Weintraub

Producer: Caleb Weintraub

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 7 minutes 54 seconds

Film Description:

This 7.5-minute experimental video unfolds within a derelict Victorian greenhouse, presenting a non-linear narrative that interweaves past, present, and future. The film combines AI-generated scenes, camera movements, sound effects, and music into a kinetic, fractured dreamscape.

The greenhouse serves as a stage hosting automatons from different eras. Humanoid figures in quasi-hazmat suits sweep the grounds with devices resembling metal detectors, while in scenes recalling a bygone era, croquet sticks appear, creating a visual parallel. These searching figures seem to be attempting to uncover the location’s enigmatic history or their own automata lineage. In other scenes, mechanical children engage in hunting sequences, pursuing robotic birds through overgrown foliage. Elsewhere, humanoid robots tend to withered plants.

Visual motifs of hunting and searching recur, creating parallels across different timeframes. Imagery shifts and transforms, suggesting themes of creation, discovery, and obsolescence in a world where past, present, and future coalesce.

The video’s atmosphere incorporates gothic undertones, nostalgia, and surrealism, with elements of the absurd and macabre. It touches on concepts of decay, memory, and the fluidity of time, as indicated by the weathered greenhouse and the automata’s anachronistic activities.

Created without traditional filming equipment, the project uses AI tools, including Runway ML (2.5), Magnific, Krea, Luma Labs: Dream Machine, Midjourney, and Eleven Labs, Suno AI. The resulting composition of fractured visuals and atmospheric soundscapes explores ideas about consciousness, the search for origins, and the cyclical nature of time in a reality where time seems to fold in on itself.